UK electric van start-up Arrival has declared that it will reduce its workforce in Bicester and Oxfordshire in the UK to the US.
“The result of these proposals is expected to have a sizable impact on the company’s global workforce, predominantly in the UK,” says the company in a statement.
This episode will lead to a significant number of job cuts in the UK branch’s Arrival office. This will be the second round of job elimination since the company has at least eliminated 800 job roles globally throughout the summer to focus on its production of electric vans.
Shifting its focus from the UK to the US markers although being headquartered in the UK, Arrival has its reason; the tax credit that was recently announced as part of the Inflation Reduction Act is expected to offer $7500 and $45000 for commercial vehicles.
The company said concerning its movement to the US “large addressable market size, and substantially better margins” offered in the US.
Also, the business’ first “micro-factory” in Bicester needs “significant funds”, for mass production, therefore, they are applying every tactic possible to raise funds, and the migration of business from the UK to the US determines the expected rise in profit.
The corporation had 1900 employees after the summer job cuts, the company did not agree or confer the number of people that would be affected by the recent cuts, but the recent updates tell us that a relevant number of job roles will be affected cardinally in the UK.
The whole plan of sifting its market from the UK to the US arose due to a fall in the shares, in 2020 Arrival was backed by Hyundai and Blackrock with an evaluation of 3 billion but since then the company has seen a huge loss to an evaluation of just $480 million. Arrival saw a 90% collapse in its shares since last year March after its merger with a special purpose acquisition company. It just saw a 6% rise after the announcement that it will shift to US markets.
The blows to the UK electric vehicle industry continue since BMW decided to stop the production of its electric Mini in the Oxford factory. the latest blow is of ultimate indignity to the job scenario in the EV industry with Arrival shifting to the UK.